Page 13 of It's All About the Duke
She reached for the books already in his hands, and her fingers covered his. A wave of something delicious washed over her. Their eyes met. Her heartbeat surged. Marlena jerked her hand away, held it to her stomach, and covered it with her other hand as if she could hide the delicious but unsettling feelings that rushed through her.A flush of heat crept into her cheeks and slid warmly down to her neck.
“I don’t mind doing it, Miss Fast. My father would say that I was seldom a gentleman, and he was right. On this occasion I will be and pick up the books.”
The duke gave her the few he had in his hands and continued to gather the rest. “Did Miss Everard have to buy so many,” he groused, piling more onto the stack in Marlena’s hands.
“Ah—for our reading society,” she said, thinking quickly. But in truth, she had no idea why Eugenia’s arms had been full. She knew Mr. Trout, the owner of the publishing company, was going to give them free copies of the book but she’d thought it would be two or three at the most. Not more than half a dozen.
When the duke grabbed up the last book he held on to it and turned it over, glancing at the back cover as if expecting something to be written there before saying, “I would have thought a reading society would have chosen something a little more challenging for the mind than this kind of easy-reading fluff.”
Affronted, Marlena frowned and leaned away from him. Her shoulders stiffened. She would have loved to tell him it had been quite an endeavor to write that book of quips and quotes about such men. What did she know about rakes, libertines, and all the rest of their kind who had no regard for a young lady’s tender feelings? Or any kind of gentlemen, for that matter? Nothing.
She’d talked with Veronica, Justine, and most of the ladies in her sewing and reading societies to get their ideas on what constituted a rake and took their comments under advisement. Still, there were many nights she’d lain awake for hours trying to come up with things a rake shouldn’t say or do concerning a young lady. And most of them had come directly from Marlena’smind.
She also wished she could let him know the book would have been twice as thick if she’d met him before she wrote it. There was no doubt that after a few more hours in his presence, she would have enough quotes to fill a second volume of words and wisdom! And she knew the first one she would write:He could be a rake if every time he looks at you your heart starts fluttering.
However, she had to put all that aside and only say, “If anyone needs to know the folly in accepting the attention of a known scoundrel or like man, it’s an innocent young lady who has not yet given her hand to a gentleman. We need to be enlightened as well as educated so we don’t find ourselves in ruinous circumstances.”
“So I’m assuming you read penny dreadfuls, too?” he asked, with a spark of humor glinting in his eyes.
“Occasionally,” she admitted awkwardly. “As well as books on poetry, history, astrology. There are simply too many other subjects to name that interest us. We have diverse tastes in our reading group.”
“So it seems.”
“I believe it is merely another form of entertainment for the people of London. We have plays, the opera, carnivals in the park, and gossip.”
“I suppose you’re right. Some people are entertained by it. They wouldn’t read it if they weren’t.”
He kept staring at the book, so therefore she did, too. The title and her name had been beautifully scripted and stamped into the light-brown leather. It seemed to be well bound, stitched seamlessly on the edges, and not much larger than the size of his hand. A feeling of pleasure and accomplishment settled over her, and she smiled. She was quite pleased with the look of it.
And that it was hers.
Yet as the duke continued to eye it, curiosity got thebetter of her and she asked, “Do you know anything about the book?”
“I can’t say I do. Though someone mentioned it to me just yesterday. It’s a new publication, I believe.”
Marlena nodded.
“I haven’t read it,” he offered, thumbing through the pages with what seemed a fair amount of interest. “But I think I will.”
“Why would you?” she asked cautiously. And quickly added, “Read something so unchallenging to yourmind.”
He gave her that easy smile again. The one that made her heart beat as fast as rain splattering against a windowpane during a storm.
“I wouldn’t think you needed any words of wisdom or warning about such men,” she advised.
The sparkle of amusement stayed in his eyes, and he shrugged. “You never can tell, Miss Fast. I might need to know how to spot a rake someday.”
“Then may I suggest all you have to do is look in the mirror, Your Grace.”
He laughed. “Your wit is charming, Miss Fast.”
She couldn’t help but return his smile, because he was genuinely pleased with her bold comment. She welcomed the humor in the duke’s eyes. It softened him and made her look at him differently. Not as a commanding man but an understanding man. But she wouldn’t let him know that.
“I suppose you thought you were an exception to the men in the book.”
“If Society has indeed failed to make me aware of that after all these years of being the center of gossip, Miss Fast, I believe you have just set me straight on the matter. However, I’m thinking it might be helpful for me to know what a woman thinks makes a man a rake.”
He thumbed through the book again, stopped on a random page, and read aloud from it: “He could be a rake if he goes for an afternoon horseback ride with his friends instead of a carriage ride with you.” The duke glanced over the top of the book to her and grimaced. “All young men enjoy their horses, their friends, and the young ladies. I don’t see any reason why a man can’t manage to do it all in the same afternoon.”
